From the January 10, 2011 edition of Chemical and Engineering News:
When I was a kid, my family moved many times. At each new school, I would go out to the kickball field during recess and wait to be picked. Because the team captains didn't know me, I would endure a week or two disappointed that I wasn't picked. Finally, there would be a shortage of kids, and a team captain would reluctantly add me to their team. At that point, I was elated and tended to play well. Eventually, I would become a team captain, and I would be picking my own team. Then my family would move again, and the process would be repeated.
Now I am an adult and a professional chemist and in a very similar situation. I'm unemployed and waiting to be picked. The team captains don't know me, and so I have been turned away many times, dejected. I'm mature enough to know that there may never be a "shortage of kids" and waiting for one would be foolish. I know that there are things I can do to grab a team captain's attention, and I practice them almost daily. But as in my younger days, I know that I must be patient.
One day I will be picked, and I'll be elated, and I'll kick a home run, and then all the other kids will like me. Maybe one day I'll be a team captain again.
Frederick J. Lakner
San Diego, CA
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I'm assuming you have the print copy? The latest batch of letters hasn't made the website yet (unless I'm doing something wrong).
ReplyDeleteI have the electronic. I can't get to the web version, because ACS ID doesn't seem to be doing its thing today.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Did you read that story from Northwestern? Scary stuff. In that situation, where it seems like the student was following a protocol developed by the PI, who bears the fiscal responsibility for what happens to the student?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I did. I think it's interesting that we didn't hear about it from C&EN/Kemsley (until the letter) and that there aren't details about the injury (other than goggles saved eyesight.)
ReplyDelete@CJ and J-Bone: Ooh...what are the details? Trying to do a Google search on the presumed accident.
ReplyDeletehttp://cenblog.org/the-safety-zone/2011/01/explosion-from-aqueous-hydrogen-peroxide-and-acetic-anhydride/
ReplyDeleteCJ - How would they learn of it? It's not like they have their own fact-gathering operation. I've heard that even (some of) their science concentrates are self-submitted.
ReplyDeleteCJ, I'm glad to see that your compassion hasn't been extricated by the "Wheel of Pain" that is chemistry grad school. Unfortunately, I can't help but retch a bit after reading this self-pitying Letter to the C&E Editor. The recent economic upheaval has left plenty of talented and dedicated chemists unemployed and unappreciated. Although the letter doesn't end on a defeatist note, it recapitulates the tiresome bitchfest that pervades the chemistry blogs. While the author chemist may have become weary of living as an internally displaced refugee in the US, couldn't he secure a fifth postdoc with his record of chemical accomplishments? DISCLAIMER: I've never met the dude, so I don't know his geo-socio-politico-economic restrictions.
ReplyDeleteA1:17p:
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of feelings (as I'm sure you know, too) that go through someone's head as they experience a tough job search. This letter was one of those emotions, so that's why I wanted to point it out.
I think Dr. Lakner is brave to admit to those vulnerabilities in a public forum. True? What do you think?
Take it easy on Fred. We were employed in the same group in a previous lifetime and are still in the same group of chemical ronin.
ReplyDelete